we finished repainting the pillars out the front today – last year they were bagged (with coloured oxides) on the Friday afternoon and we had a wild cyclonic wind/rain storm that night – with the result that the next day the swirling patterned bagged concrete remained … sans oxide! Very frustrating … but one of those jobs we would have to ‘get to’ … so we got to the front of the garage about a month ago (or I did, finally, and Mr Tasmania did the other half on seeing what I’d done) … and today we finished the two pillars at the front entry way – and yes it looks great and hooray I’m so glad that’s done and can be taken of our lists!

That’s ‘lists’ plural ’cause we’ve both got a number going, on which only a few things are the same

He’s now washing cars and I’m working my way through a garden magazine, ordering free catalogues, and circling inspirational bits.

Mr Tas spent 5 hours rotary hoeing the plateau at the front of the house yesterday, then another 2 or so hours raking it, spreading 10kg’s of grass seed, raking that in, then setting up and moving his sprinkler. So, hopefully, in a day or two we’ll have some green spreading across. We will have to eventually dig up bits of the lawn that is going to result BUT, for now, lawn is the best thing so we don’t have a boggy clayey marsh there this Winter.

He also rotary hoed my new garden bed … which is going to be a work in progress for quite a while – I’ve got the design done and am looking out for the appropriate conifers (it’s going to be a conifer garden … obviously) … but the ground needs a lot of work before they go in … giving it a solid ripping up was a good start but there is going to be lots of work with the fork, grass removal, cow manuring, mulching, dolomiting (or maybe not, will have to check), papering/mulching, etc etc etc … and I think I want large white rocks in and around all the trees so will have to work all that out … but it’s fun so that’s fine!

and things we’ve been doing

growing (4) sunflowers (only 1 yellow – the other three were bronze / orange tigers, gorgeous, going to grow them again!)

building footpaths around the house so we don’t have to slide around it on the clay like last year (will be a while before we have topsoil and grass all around the house)

growing frangipani’s (I think they’re called plumeria in the US) … at least semi-tropical so we’ll see how he goes when the colder weather sets in!

building access doors so wives do not give themselves hernias when trying to open ENORMOUS and HEAVY shed doors … let alone trying to close them!

putting in retaining walls and planting japanese m*ples … the flowers and all are just for pretty for now – we’ll change this garden over time but we wanted to get it walled and mulched asap (ie before rain started in March) which we pretty much managed …

GIANT bale of pea straw for mulch (boiling hot in there tonight after on the weekend and sun this week) .. this is equal to about 12 or so normal bales .. it’s HUGE .. pic taken from about 15 metres away …

just sitting around – amazingly we now have time! I have no idea what Fred (the small one) and JD (the blue one) are looking at but it’s obviously interesting

it’s root canal … blast.

ah well, has to be done, not for 6 weeks yet so I can save up a bit, at least he’s a good dentist.

Bang goes a few projects though – redistribution of financial assets ONCE AGAIN!

to summarise:

Apparently contact has been made with the Chilli Girl’s family in Santiago, all are fine, however so far no news on the extended family out towards Los Angeles and Concepcion … but this may mainly be due to lack of communication systems so nobody is panicking as such at this point.

I am off to the dentist again today, hopefully not with a result of having to have root canal therapy.

The foreshore market is on here again on Sunday and I’m going to start to put into action my conifer garden .. I’ve drawn the plan now I’m going to start buying the plants … and being conifers they can just live in their pots until I get round to building the garden

I’ve also ordered 20 bags of mushroom compost at a bargain price to be delivered on Friday pm – lucky Mr Tasmania gets to help unload those – which will go out on the plateau – so hopefully we’ll be out there this arvo with the fork breaking up a bit more clay so it can at least get a teensy bit under the surface.

And I’ve finally, 4 YEARS after having my last one, booked a massage – mind you, she’s so busy I can’t get in until the 13th but still, I’ve done it! I’ve been having progressively more problems with my neck – or, rather, the muscles leading to my neck. Whenever I do heavy garden work ie digging into clay etc the next day I wake up in great pain in the neck region – which is to do with the muscles (big old swimming ones) pulled on it, rather than anything skeletal – this time, at least, there has not been the accompanying needle point over the eye headache! Treatment so far is Adv1l and Deep Heat but I’ve decided that obviously a regular massage will also assist – it used to be really helpful in this respect – so I’ve finally done it!

And that’s about it … pootling along otherwise, things gradually getting done, finished, organised … life goes on in fact

if anyone has a sec or two I’d appreciate a few prayers being thrown heavenward for the Chilli girl’s family – most of whom live in Santiago, which is a complete disaster area after the earthquake … last i heard nobody had been able to contact anyone, which is not necessarily bad news as it there is no power and minimal phone coverage …

thanks all

The worms have arrived! Finally! MR Tasmania gave me a worm farm for Christmas (amongst other things) which you may remember some of my girlfriends finding weird but which I think is FANTASTIC (’cause he bought me something he knew I’d REALLY like!). Anyway, the worms were on order and finally arrived today.

It’s such a cool kit, with the cardboard wrapping around the whole thing, and the paper wrapping around the coir bedding all designed to be digested by the little tackers as well – so smart!

So, they’re all bedded in on their coir and under their hessian sack, with some additional well chopped up potato peelings and leftover salad (no dressing, obviously!) … I’ve put it next to the compost bin because I don’t think even the best of worms can keep up with our vegie scraps and they seem to belong together.

I’ve also just (hopefully) rescued my poor Violent Bean seedings … after popping up delightfully and loving the rain we had over the last two days they’ve shrivelled in the heat of yesterday and today … I’ve water them, put them in larger pots, and watered them with seaweed solution so hopefully they’ll revive …

I’m not really bereft if my vegies don’t make it this year, I just don’t have enough time to spend on them … it’s more infrastructure this year rather than micromanagement .. at least I can buy good seasonal vegies and fruits locally though – currently loving the white nectarines and (yay!) Australia naval oranges which just came in today – haven’t had an orange in nearly 3 months because I don’t like Valencias and the Navals come from the US .. nothing against US oranges but you all know the food mile concept etc …. not that I stick to it religiously but I can’t buy US oranges for (mostly) the same reason I can’t buy Chinese garlic … though I can buy sunflower oil from Spain because as far as I’m aware we don’t produce it in this country – I try to use other oils but sometimes it’s just the best thing

it’s very misty (humidity) and quite warm … quite enjoying it actually, tho’ I do have an air conditioned house to retreat to when it becomes too obnoxiously sweaty

Mr Tasmania has just headed off to play golf with a mate who is full time carer for his dad – he gets some time out so it’s great they can have a game together.

I’m working on a Nutritional Information Panel for my mum’s jam … there’s an online calculator but still have to use the brain so just waiting for dinner to digest a bit so I have a bit more blood supply available

Will then go out and water the poor plants … we’re supposed to have rain tomorrow … even 10mm would be great really …. it’s all getting very parched and there’s only so much you can do with a watering can and a bucket …

I’m enjoying it all though!

we have one, it’s very exciting, it was a bargain and it’s a stand alone desktop … which means when I have a flex day and Mr Tasmania takes his work laptop away (to work, oddly enough) I am still hooked into the world – hooray! And can also do things like organise photos, work on my landscaping plans, email friends/family etc … though must admit that I’m starting to like the idea of writing letters again now that we’re a bit more settled.

We had rain yesterday, which was great, after a loooong humid day … only 5mm but it soaked straight in and the wind had dropped so the poor old plants actually got some benefit from it. Was handy for Mr Tasmania too, who has been busily shovelling enormous amounts of foundation gravel into the paths he’s constructed all around the house.

He gave them a bash with the whacker packer this arvo and they’re now sitting there in preparation for us to shovel about 3metres of gravel onto it tomorrow (that’s cubic metres btw) … we’ll just see how we go with that

I’m also working on a design using (at this point) 4 different shapes of conifer for an area around the bend of our drive … love it when an idea pops almost fully realised into your head and you just have to fill in the details ie names / types of plants (not that I know if I can find them in Tassie yet!), ground preparation etc … really fun! Love working to a vision

I’m inspired by the two vases currently on my windowsill as well – Mr Tasmania brought me home some lovely flowers and I have rosemary sprouting … must get that planted into a pot quite soon actually! … the garden is an extremely long project but it’s great to be getting the foundations happening … kinda like a house and a marriage now I come to think of it!

it is, yet again, a windy day … I had high hopes this morning, it looked like being beautiful … but no, dusty windy gusty blowy FILTHY horrible wind .. again …

There is dust, literally, all over the house … it’s too warm to keep it fully enclosed so I’ve had a few windows cracked open … unfortunately, it seems, just that little bit too far open … even the laptop keyboard is gritty!

sigh

still, I’ve replanted a couple of pot plants (and ran out of potting mix and pots) … generally pottered around slowly finishing a few jobs and putting things in their right place finally and shifting things into other areas … I’ve cleaned up another bookshelf and brought it to the study to sit in front of the desk and act like it’s an ‘office’ shelf thus freeing other bookshelves to be ‘library’ shelving … so I’ve also brought in all my Ag*tha Christi*s, a pile of various Hammond Innes, Desmond Bagley, Alistair McLain etc, and a couple of Kerry Greenwoods …

I’m loving having more of my books out but i’m also well aware that when we get the proper shelving for this area they’re all going to have to come off the shelves, move to the other side of the room, and then get put back on the shelf.

But, sufficient unto the day, bringing my books in is great

It was great, seriously windy but really interesting! I’m sunburnt and windburnt but we had a great day – will post pictures at some point when I have our computer back …

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